Europe needs Pennsylvania’s natural gas

June 23, 2015

Danielle Wente | Energy Media Group

Thanks to Russia forcing Europe to pay high natural gas prices, Central and Eastern European counties are in need of Pennsylvania’s natural gas.

On Monday, speakers at Williamsport-Lycoming Chamber of Commerce member connection event advocated the idea of exporting Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale gas. During the discussion, commerce members requested the self-imposed exporting limits on natural gas be put to an end. As reported by PennLive, “The 1938 Natural Gas Act permits exports if the Energy Department finds they are in the public interest. This is 2015, not 1938, said Fred H. Hutchinson, executive director of LNG Allies, an organization that support exports. LNG stands for liquefied natural gas.”

According to Hutchinson, “it is time to close ranks and open international markets for U.S. natural gas.”

During the commerce member connection event, representatives from 15 European embassies sat in the audience and listened to the discussion. Following the event, the representatives toured a Halliburton natural gas powered generating plant that is under construction, along with a Marcellus Shale gas well.

Among the representatives was Ivo Konstantinov from the Bulgarian embassy who explained his country sees unreliable and expensive natural gas supplies controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Konstantinov said his people love Russian people, but the cost of the “friendship” is too much, and the “monopolistic extortion” is holding Bulgaria back from developing.

As reported by PennLive, Hutchinson said, “With 85 to 135 years of technically recoverable reserves, the United States is now in a position to meet current/expected domestic demand and support NATO and other allies by granting them expedited access to our natural gas.” He also referred to comments made by the Lithuanian embassy representative who said, “We need America’s cooperation to reach out full potential, and what we need the most right now from the United States of America is competitively prices, long-term supply of natural gas.”

During the commerce member event, speakers also pointed out that by exporting natural gas, more jobs would be created in Pennsylvania, and additionally, pipeline infrastructure would grow. Erik Milito, group director for upstream and industry operations of the American Petroleum Institute, estimates that by 2035, 60,000 more jobs could be available. Milito also said an additional $10 million in income would come into Pennsylvania if natural gas was exported.

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